Adl Traffic Engineering Bs37

Omnibuses: 7+2 Failures to Launch

General Motors must’ve kicked itself. If ever there was a product placed on the market at the *wrong* time, it was their Bedford JJL. The JJL was a good looking, rear engined, low frame early 20-29 seat midibus, appearing in prototype in 1978 and marketed from 1979. Quirky Maidstone Borough took delivery of the only JJLs ever made, all with Marshall bodywork. They later found service in Brighton and, yes, Bournemouth Transport . There's a picture of a Bournemouth JJL here There once was a time when bus grant made new purchases a very attractive proposition. Any new vehicle would do. General shortages forced a reluctant Crosville Motor Services to accept an incredible 100 Seddon RU rear engined single decks with Penine bodywork, in 1971 & 1972. Click to see a typical Crosville Seddon, one of 50 with dual door 45 seat Pennine bodies. Crosville's RUs were over a third of the total production run, Lancashire United being the other major purchaser. A number of smaller, mainly northern municipals joined in. The RU got as far south as Southampton City Transport , too. This was at a time when the Leyland National began to emerge. National Bus Company subsidiaries had no choice but to purchase Nationals. There was plenty of resentment among other operators who still had the choice, at what appeared to be a strong Leyland single deck monopoly. Just at the time Seddon might’ve offered a real alternative, it ceased production. It’s sad that structural issues associated with the design forced complicated and costly repairs. Disliking the RU, operators to a man withdrew then prematurely. How different things might’ve been. On paper, the RU had much to offer. For one thing, it had a much-loved traditional chassis-body combination (compared to the National’s disliked integral design). For another, it used a trusted Gardner 6HLX engine (compared to the National’s unknown Leyland 501). The RU was in fact a Bristol RE clone, the RE being very popular with engineering and traffic departments alike. Had the RU been a product up to challenging the might of the Leyland National, it would’ve been National’s sole competitor. Three issues coming to a head at around the same time persuaded Foden to re-enter the bus market.

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